Stumbled upon the original "Get Carter" with Micheal Caine on the AMC last night; caught it fairly early and watched it on through.

I saw this movie in the theaters in 1971, and it was the best movie I'd ever seen that I could be almost absolutely certain that no one else had seen. The other movie around that time that I thought was amazing was the original "Point Blank" with Lee Marvin. "Point Blank" immediately followed last night. Helluva double feature, I wish I'd known they were on -- they didn't seem to be in the listings -- and I wish I could've videotaped them.

The "Get Carter" was a movie pick by guest host Alfred Molina.

Both movies have been remade recently, a lousy rendition by Sylvester Stallone, and an entertaining but nothing like the original version of Point Blank by Mel Gibson. With a different title I'm too lazy to look up. (Ironically, enough, the Gibson version was much closer in tone to the book.)

What I'm finding in all these old favorites is that they are dated. (Superfly is another one recently seen.) The styles are just kind of cool, and don't detract. Weirdly, I find the 'violence' dated. That is, as brutal and cold as Get Carter is, the violence just doesn't seem very real compared to today's movies. For some reason, even though I saw it as a horny 19 year old, I didn't remember the sex as much as the violence and the shocking end of the movie. Lots of nudity and sex. Great scene where Carter is having phone sex with his girlfriend back in London (Britt Eklund!) and he's using his landlady's phone, and she's listening in as she rhythmically rocks back and forth on her rocker and the camera slowly zooms in on her eyes and lips. Wild. Wild too, that you can watch so much nudity on just a normal cable channel.

Micheal Caine really makes this movie work, he's such a handsome cold bastard. It was directed by Mike Hodges, who directed "Croupier" with Clive Owen, many, many years later. Those two movies make him a master, though nothing else he's done has been as memorable.

P.S. I did catch this movie a few years ago on a regular channel and couldn't understand what I liked about it. Last night made it clear that this movie simply must be watched uncut and uninterrupted. Like Point Blank. How can the surreal dreamstate of Point Blank even work on a small screen, much less with commercials?